


Like the Deserts Miss the Rain

by NeoVenus22



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-13
Updated: 2010-03-13
Packaged: 2017-10-07 22:56:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeoVenus22/pseuds/NeoVenus22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cameron feels the loss of his teammates hard, but not as hard as others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like the Deserts Miss the Rain

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: SG-1 10x20, 'Unending'; SGA 4x03, 'Reunion'

Cameron wasn't surprised to find Teal'c already getting down to business in Sam's lab, arranging expensive-looking doohickeys into the boxes she'd left behind. "Hey, Teal'c. Need some help?"

"I am fine, Colonel Mitchell."

He'd sort of figured he'd say that. Counted on it, really, but it was polite to offer.

"So. I guess this is it, huh? End of an era."

Teal'c folded over the cardboard flaps and tucked them into each other.

"Yep, definitely sucks for me," Cameron went on. "Do you know how much effort I put into getting you guys to rejoin SG-1? Now Sam's running off to Atlantis, and Jackson is probably going to follow... you're going back to Chulak... pretty soon it's just gonna be me, Vala, and Reynolds." The thought was a little horrifying.

"Colonel Reynolds is a formidable warrior."

"Yeah, and a nice guy. Funny, actually. But it's not the same."

"Indeed not."

"Anyway, not to get mushy, but I'm gonna miss you," said Cameron, crossing his arms over his chest. Teal'c was still busying himself, which was a relief. Any lingering animosity Teal'c might have displayed for Cameron in the past (though Sam had sworn that was all in his head), they still hadn't managed to be the best of buddies. This wasn't exactly a speech Cameron felt totally comfortable making. "There's no chance I can convince you to stay, is there?"

"There is not."

"Yeah, didn't think so." It was pretty obvious Teal'c wasn't in the mood to talk (when was he ever?), yet Cameron couldn't bring himself to shut up. "Actually, I'm surprised you stayed this long." The Ori had been defeated a month ago. There was dissent among the Jaffa, so Teal'c went to visit the Council often, yet kept coming back to Earth.

"I had my reasons to stay," said Teal'c. "Those reasons are now gone."

Dude was decidedly cryptic. And somber. More so than usual. "Well, whatever they were, thanks," said Cameron. There was no hiding his sincerity. "And this probably would mean more coming from someone else, probably anyone else, but... you've always got a place on my team, if you want it. All you have to do is ask."

Teal'c opened his mouth slightly, possibly to thank Cameron for the offer, possibly to turn him down, but Cameron never found out. Whatever Teal'c had intended to say got lost in the sound of the klaxons blaring and the disembodied warning, "Incoming wormhole."

"That's our cue," said Cameron. Teal'c abandoned his task without question or a second glance and followed him into the hallway.

"Sir?" Cameron asked when they came into the control room.

"One last missive from Colonel Carter," Landry explained, nodding at Sam's face displayed on a handful of screens.

"Sam," Cameron greeted her with relief. "Settling in okay?"

"They gave me a room with a view," she said with a good-natured shrug. "Hey, is Daniel there?"

"Jackson and Vala are off-world right now, but I'll tell them you called."

"Too bad," Sam frowned, "I was hoping to say hi. Daniel would really love it here, there's this room over by one of the northern piers where—"

"May I remind you that the Atlantis Stargate does not come with an unlimited calling plan?" a grating voice cut in from Sam's end.

"McKay," Cameron mouthed, casting Teal'c a grim smile. The rejection was easier to swallow knowing her new life and swanky digs weren't without issues. He didn't envy her suffering through McKay hourly. "Glad to see you're not having too much fun there without us, Sam."

"He knows I can hear him, right?" said McKay.

Sam flashed one of her well-practiced smiles that led to ideas of bottomless patience. "Rodney has a point, I should keep this brief. You should be receiving a data burst with the last twenty mission reports about now. I just wanted to check in and let you know that everything's going well on the new planet. We've settled in fine and have started sending out teams to explore the mainland."

"Any word on the Wraith or the Replicators?"

"As far as we know, we're completely off anyone's radar," Sam reported.

"Good to know. Well, we're glad to hear from you. You know how Teal'c worries." But this comment didn't garner the sort of response he'd been expecting; on her end, Sam's gaze dropped to her lap, and when Cameron glanced backwards, Teal'c seemed more solemn than ever. Cameron wondered if this was another SG-1 thing, something they took for granted, an inside joke he'd never be privy to.

Of course, he'd long since learned to accept that as an inevitability, and had gotten to the point where he didn't even much mind. It wasn't as though the new school SG-1 didn't gel, didn't have their own series of jokes and ways of relating to each other. Cameron cared too much about his friends to try and interfere in the old blood bonds of his team. Now was a perfect time to exercise that restraint.

He coughed. "Okay, I'm going to let you guys have your moment now. Don't be a stranger, Sam."

Sam's mouth quirked in a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I won't. Thanks, Cam."

Cameron offered up a hasty mock-salute he thought she might appreciate, shrugged apologetically at Landry, and went back to the elevator. He hovered in Sam's lab for close to twenty minutes, wanting to resume Teal'c's work, but way too afraid to actually touch any of the doohickeys. He had too many unpleasant memories and had maybe, after three years, finally learned to not run around touching things at random.

Teal'c finally returned to the room with eyes dark and unfocused. He took no notice of Cameron propped up on the desktop (a bad habit, to be sure, but Cameron still woke up some mornings remembering what it was like to be unable to walk, and so he jumped up on tables), just went back to his box and the Tetris-like arrangement of its contents.

"Nice of her to call," said Cameron. Teal'c gave no sign he'd heard this, much less that he planned to acknowledge it. "So." Cameron kicked his heel against the desk pointedly. "You have a girlfriend, right? Jackson told me. Ishta? You thinking of seeing her again?"

"Ishta lives among the Hak'tyl," said Teal'c. "I will be returning to Chulak."

"Yeah, but," Cameron shrugged and tried to pretend he was having this conversation with another normal, regular Earth dude, "long-distance relationship, you know..?"

"You have no idea," was the answer, so quiet Cameron almost didn't hear it, and so... not-Teal'c he almost didn't believe it. Then again, this wasn't the same Teal'c he was used to. He'd come back from Orilla with fifty years of memories and a far more relaxed attitude (well, relaxed for him) towards the rest of them.

Cameron fought against the urge to respond to this statement, for once, and was rewarded for his efforts. Teal'c's voice rose again to a conversational level and he continued, "It has been fifty years. Perhaps not for others, but for me. To be with Ishta would be a betrayal."

But that seemed to be all he was willing to say on the subject. Cameron wondered exactly what it meant. "Who would be betrayed?"

"That is hard to say."

He tried to put together the pithy facts he'd been given. "Teal'c, did something happen while we were on the _Odyssey_?"

"It is not important."

Cameron highly doubted that. "It's cool, you don't have to tell me. I don't mind."

He got an eyebrow raise in response, downright amusement. "Your persistence in the matter might suggest otherwise."

Cameron knew when he was caught, but that he actually didn't mind. "I just thought you might need someone to talk to."

"I am fine, Colonel Mitchell."

"And yet, you don't seem fine. You want us to call up Sam again? She's better with this stuff than me, anyway."

"Samantha Carter has much on her mind already without my interference," Teal'c deflected, his tone soft but firm. As far as he was concerned, this conversation was over.

Too bad that for Cameron, it had only just begun.

Cameron was someone occasionally accused of being completely clueless when it came to affairs of the heart (a claim usually made a girlfriend). But in that subtle distinction, that deference from title and rank to the easy use of 'Samantha' and finally succumbing familiarity the rest of them had been gracing Sam with for years, the entire picture was completely painted for Cameron. He understood everything. He only wished it had become clear way sooner, when he could have done something about it.

That didn't mean he couldn't try. Cameron hoisted himself off the desk and shifted slowly towards the door. "You know, man, the Pegasus galaxy is only a few minutes away nowadays. I've got some leave coming up soon. And hey, I joined this program so I could see the universe." Teal'c stared him down, stepping just into the shadows of the melancholy room so that his expression was shielded from Cameron's scrutiny. Fine by him. "So I'm thinking of headed to Atlantis sometime soon, if you want to tag along. All that political crap is going to get on your nerves eventually, right?"

Teal'c inclined his head. "Indeed."

"Road trip," Cameron tried to pass it off casually, for Teal'c's sake, "cool."

But on the eve of another teammate's untimely departure, Cameron felt a goodbye gift was at least in order. "Teal'c, for what it's worth, you're a brave guy." It was a loose statement, and certainly one the gist of which Teal'c had heard a million times before, but not necessarily in this context. Light finally struck the Jaffa's face, allowing Cameron to read the acknowledgement in it.

"Thank you, Colonel Mitchell."

"I'm not the only one who thinks so, either," said Cameron, going for broke.

"I should hope not," was the answer, just teasing enough that they could easily have been discussing something else. But Cameron knew. And he hoped for now, that would be enough.


End file.
